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Masako Mori (森 昌子, born; Masako Morita; born October 13, 1958) is a Japanese idol, enka singer, and actress.
She debuted in 1972,[1] at age 13, with the song "Sensei" (Professor), receiving numerous music awards for it.[2] The song reached the #3 position on the Oricon charts.[3] Other hits include "Dōkyūsei" (Classmates), "Chugaku Sannensei" (Junior High School Third Grade), "Okaasan" (Mother) and "Ettou Tsubame" (The Wintering Swallow).
In 1973, she was part of "a hit female trio", which also included musicians Momoe Yamaguchi and Junko Sakurada.[4] The music trio became popular as part of the television program Producing the Stars (Star Tanjō!); they were known as "The Trio of Third-Year Junior High School Students" ("Hana no Chu 3 Trio").[5]
She won the Best Singer prize for "Ettou Tsubame" (越冬つばめ) at the 25th Japan Record Awards.[6] She retired when she married Shinichi Mori in 1986, but in 2006 returned to the stage with the single "Bara Iro no Mirai".[2] The song reached the #14 position on the Oricon charts.[3]
In addition to being a singer, she has acted in a number of Japanese movies and TV dramas.
Masako Mori has performed a total of 15 times at Kōhaku Uta Gassen.
In March 2019, Masako Mori announced that she was retiring from showbusiness again.[7]
She married fellow singer Shinichi Mori in 1986,[2] they had three sons together, ONE OK ROCK vocalist Takahiro Moriuchi, Tomohiro (who works at TV Tokyo) and MY FIRST STORY vocalist Hiroki Moriuchi.[8][9] The couple divorced in 2005.[10] Through her third son, actress and model Maika Yamamoto is her daughter-in-law.[11]